About the High School Huddle

Welcome to the Citizen-Times' constantly-updated blog for Western North Carolina high school sports. Features include breaking news, scores and stats, college recruiting updates and live blogs from some of the marquee games in WNC. Readers are encouraged to comment on posts, but personal attacks on current athletes, coaches and their families will not be tolerated and are subject to edit or removal at the moderator's discretion.

Here are the funeral arrangements for veteran Western North Carolina official Terry Stamey who died Tuesday at age 50:

Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 5, 2013 at the High Street Baptist Church with the Reverend Chris Willett officiating. Burial will follow at Morning Star Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 11:00 a.m. until 1:45 p.m. prior to the service in the church fellowship hall.

Four youth wrestlers from the Western North Carolina-based Strong and Courageous club came away from this past weekend’s Dixie Nationals tournament as All-Americans.

East Henderson High freshman Aaron Owensby won the 14 and under division’s 135-pound championship. Erwin Middle School eighth grader Justin Payne came in third in that same weight class.

Polk County Middle School eighth grader Chase Emery placed fifth in the 14 and under division at 105 pounds. Rugby Middle School eighth grader Cole Galloway was fourth in the 14 and under division at 75 pounds.

The tournament was held Friday and Saturday. Wrestlers who placed in the top-six of their weight class were considered All-Americans.

Kacee Hutchinson was not asking for any mercy as an undersized wrestler at 195 pounds last season.

And he’s definitely not showing opponents any forgiveness now as a defending NCHSAA 3-A champion.

Hutchinson is off to a 36-0 start, but this season has been different in a couple key ways for the Enka senior and 2012 Citizen-Times All-WNC Wrestler of the Year.

Hutchinson not only has a successful junior year to build on. He went 59-2 last winter, while bringing home championships from the NCHSAA 3-A, 3-A Western Regional and Mountain Athletic Conference tournaments.

Hutchinson also played varsity football for the first time (as a lineman) in the fall.

Extra bulk from that sport has allowed Hutchinson to truly wrestle at 195 pounds, whereas a year ago he was giving up weight to many of his competitors.

“It’s a nice feeling,” Hutchinson said.

“I’ve gotten a lot bigger (through football) and it does help. It’s the same pressure every year though. You just don’t want to get beat. I feel like I always have a target on my back and someone’s always gunning for me.”

Hutchinson has not yet finalized his college plans, but is leaning toward the University of North Carolina. He wrestles in the offseason for the Western North Carolina-based Strong and Courageous Club.

Longtime Jets coach Mark Harris is proud of the mental and physical development that Hutchinson has made in the past year.

“He’s always been a disciplined kid. Kacee has such focus,” Harris said.

“What we may be seeing this year is that he’s a little better conditioned. He was eating up to (195 pounds) in the past. Now he’s losing down to it and doing it without any issues.”

Former Buncombe County baseball standouts Steven Hensley (Owen) and John Hinson (Reynolds) are teaming up to hold a youth camp on Jan. 5.

The Hinson & Hensley camp will be held at Reynolds and two sessions are available for players who are ages 7 to 12 (8 a.m. to noon) and 13 and over (1 to 5 p.m.).

The cost to attend either session is $75 and includes a t-shirt for preregistered campers. Same-day registration will start a half-hour before the start of each session. Players should bring all needed equipment and insurance information.

Hensley is currently a pitcher in the Seattle Mariners organization and led Owen to a 2-A Western Regional championship as a high school senior in 2005. He was the Southern Conference Pitcher of the Year in 2008 while at Elon.

Hinson graduated from Reynolds in 2007 and is now a second baseman in the Houston Astros organization. Hinson helped lead Clemson to the College World Series after high school and was the most valuable player of the Auburn Regional in 2010.

ENKA – Enka High School volleyball player Taylor Sauer has earned her way into the North Carolina High School Record Book in her sport.

The Enka standout set the NCHSAA record for kills in a season with 602 and also averaged 21.5 kills per match, a new record. Those marks exceeded the former standards of 512 in a season, established by Amber Wooten of Starmount in 2010, and the average of 19.9 kills per contest set by Jennifer Wiker of South Mecklenburg in 2007.

The Asheville Citizen-Times also reported that Sauer was named the Citizen-Times All-Western North Carolina Player of the year for the 2012 season. She will continue her career at the University of North Carolina Asheville.

Carter stepped down as head coach in 2009 with a career record of 173-120 in dual team competition. Erwin athletic director David Ball said his school did not formally announce Carter’s return because he never really left – Carter has helped out with the program the past three seasons.

Erwin will be one of 13 teams in Saturday’s Air Force Enka Duals tournament in Candler. Wrestling is scheduled to start at 9:15 a.m.

Terry Stamey, center, was an official in the 2010 NCHSAA 2-A championship football game (PHOTO: WNC SPORTS OFFICIALS).

Saturday’s 10th annual Air Force Enka Duals wrestling tournament has been dedicated to the memory of Terry Stamey.

Stamey died Tuesday as a result of complications from a blood infection. He was 50.

Stamey was a longtime Western North Carolina wrestling official who worked numerous NCHSAA tournaments in the past. He also refereed football and most recently represented WNC in the 2010 NCHSAA 2-A championship game.

Enka wrestling coach Mark Harris said that once his school has recouped expenses from Saturday’s 13-team tournament, the profits will go to the Stamey family. Saturday’s officials are also donating money as a group, Harris said.

Wrestling is scheduled to begin Saturday morning at Enka at 9:15 a.m. with the championship finals set for approximately 4 p.m. Admission is $7 for spectators.

“I always admired Terry,” Harris said.

“He took what he did very seriously and always wanted to do a good job. He really demanded sportsmanship from athletes and coaches. Terry set a very high standard for decorum.”

Jefferson and Gash were holdovers from Rod Marinelli’s staff that Jim Schwartz inherited when he took over as Lions coach in 2009. Yarno oversaw an offensive front that allowed among the fewest sacks in the league but struggled to consistently open holes in the run game.

Coaches, please send me any updates you have by 3 p.m. today (Wednesday).

WNC SWIMMING HONOR ROLL

Following are the season’s top performances recorded by area swimmers and reported to the Citizen-Times. Coaches who would like to submit updates should contact Andrew Pearson at 232-5863 or apearson@citizen-times.com each Wednesday by 3 p.m.

Stamey worked football games this past season and had been selected to represent WNC at the highest level (most recently the NCHSAA 2-A finals in 2010).

He had also reffed at multiple NCHSAA wrestling tournaments. Stamey was easily one of the sport’s most respected wrestling officials in WNC as evidenced by the fact that Enka senior Kacee Hutchinson and Roberson senior Coburn Burroughs (who are both currently ranked No. 1 in the state), are among the local wrestlers who have expressed their condolences for Stamey on the aforementioned Facebook page.

Stamey was a Haywood County resident and employee of the Town of Canton for more than a decade.

Saturday’s Enka Duals will be the first major wrestling tournament in WNC after Stamey’s death. Jets coach Mark Harris said Monday that there were tentative plans to donate a portion of the proceeds from the 13-team tournament to Stamey and his family, but nothing had been finalized yet.